


Grass Exam Musings

by Voldecourt



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Dreaming of Sunshine Exchange 2019 B, Gen, Kakashi is so proud of his cute little genin, Missing Scene, Shikako is awesome, Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:26:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22110094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Voldecourt/pseuds/Voldecourt
Summary: A discussion between Kakashi and Tsunade after the third day of the Grass Exams, before the night went sour.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Tsunade
Comments: 16
Kudos: 503
Collections: Dreaming of Sunshine Exchange 2019 B, Heliocentrism — a Dreaming of Sunshine recursive collection





	Grass Exam Musings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KonMichie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KonMichie/gifts).



The Konoha housing section was mostly empty, on the night before the Grass chunin exam semi-finals. All of the defeated genin had chosen to enjoy the sights of the festival, and most of the jounin had left to chaperone. Sasuke and Neji were just outside preparing for their upcoming matches, as Gai stood on guard duty for the area and shouted encouragements at them.

Tsunade sighed and sank down into the chair, pulling out a bottle of sake. Kakashi lounged beside his bunk, reading. Or, perhaps he wasn’t. Tsunade was sure he actually read his books about as often as she drank sake. Which is, more than conventional wisdom would suggest, but less than most expected.

Tonight though, she deserved an actual drink. Being in a box with the other kage was about as fun as she’d expected it to be, in spite of, or perhaps because of, the showing her genin had made the past two days.

At least she could take her frustrations out on the man who was personally responsible for two of them.

“Well,” she said to Kakashi, as dryly as she could manage, “I see you’ve taught your students how to drain as much chakra as possible while creating the biggest, most dramatic spectacle they can. ”

Kakashi didn’t look up from his book, “Shikako always knows where her limits are, and Sasuke beat Kiba with chakra to spare. And I’m not dramatic.”

Tsunade ignored him. “It’s true that the whole point of the chunin exams is to show off as much as possible, but only a student of yours would take that to mean ‘here are all the ways I could kill a jinchuriki if I really wanted to’. Not to mention her fight yesterday.”

While all the civilians and most of the genin were more impressed by her bombastic fight with Gaara, it was her second match that had really secured the attention of the Kage booth.

“Well,” Kakashi said, as he turned another page of his book, “if you’d wanted to keep Shikako’s talents unknown you should have promoted her last exam, as several people suggested. She was ready to be a chunin the day she graduated.”

Ah, he was still sore about that, was he? “You know we don’t allow jounin sensei to have any say in who gets promoted.”

Some of the jounin insisted their kids were ready out of pride and overconfidence in their teaching ability. Others just wanted to be free of a burden. Back then, Tsunade had been sure that Kakashi was in the latter camp. Now though, after he’d bullied his way into becoming her guard for the exam, after hearing him brag and make digs at Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai, after he made himself such a nusisnce after the surprise S-rank months ago, well, she knew better.

Kakashi turned another page, seemingly uncaring. “Every single examiner and every chunin she talked with recommended her. Despite her forfeiting.”

That was true. Ibiki, Anko, Izumo and Kotetsu, even one of the patrolling guards from after the invasion had put in a good word. “As I told you then, I was promoting only unanimous cases. Some people thought she was too naive.”

It had been two of the council elders who had watched the exams who had been against her promotion at the time, claiming she was too inexperienced and soft, to not kill the jinchuriki, and to let him and his team leave.

Kakashi scoffed, “Over the course of the last exams Shikako killed sixteen people, thirteen of them during the invasion. Nobody who’d actually seen her fight would ever consider her soft”

“She made a field decision to let three enemies, one of whom was a jinchuriki, go. It’s understandable that some people had reservations.”

“And yet,” Kakashi said, closing his book and giving up any pretense of being interested in it, “If she hadn’t, then this little alliance the genin have built here with Sand and Mist wouldn’t be happening, now would it?”

Tsunade rolled her eyes and finished her drink, slamming the cup down on the table.“You’re claiming that Shikako planned for an alliance? During the Sand invasion? She’s good, but she couldn’t have known enough to draw that conclusion.”

Kakashi hummed noncommittally, “Probably not. But I think she saw the possibility and figured it was worth the risk. She’s good at picking up on patterns, and gathering anything useful from them.”

Yes, Tsunade had seen that herself. From items like her grand-uncle’s sword, information such as the incident involving Kurama Yakumo, to, apparently, the support of a previously unstable sand demon turned soon to be Kage, Shikako was very good at collecting things.

And, as obvious from her performance at this exam, just as skilled at using them. The Raikage’s grumblings about plants had only increased with each successive day Shikako and all the other Konoha genin continued to impress.

“Well,” Tsunade said, “I doubt anybody will contest her promotion now, after the past three fights.”

Shikako probably had deserved to be promoted after the Konoha exams, but it was just as well she got the opportunity to show off. While promoting her without much fanfare or international knowledge would have been just fine, it was good that Konoha had under-ranked genin of their own to compete with the likes of Gaara and Haku.

Never let it be said that Tsunade wasn’t also an opportunist. All the best ninja were, after all.

Kakashi’s eye curved up in it’s signature smile, always ready to brag about his students, “She has gotten very good at those explosions of hers. I—”

Whatever he’d been about to say next was swallowed by the sound of a large boom in the distance, obviously an explosion, from where the festival was. Screams from civilians followed, as the chakra of all the ninja in the vicinity tensed .

Kakashi was gone from the room in an instant, Tsunade following a millisecond behind, and the conversation was abandoned as the night took a far more tense turn than expected.

**Author's Note:**

> And then Kakashi got to be a scary protective papa-wolf and Tsunade got to save Shikako's life again as she showed off her dramatic side. Because truly, she's Kakashi's student. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Writing Tsunade's POV was hard but I did my best!


End file.
